Six New Agricola Expansions Arriving 2017 – Lookout Games GmbH and WizKids Announce New Partnership

HILLSIDE, NJ – October 25, 2016 – WizKids is excited to announce a new licensing partnership with Lookout Games GmbH to expand on their global hit board game, Agricola. The new product line (Agricola Upgrade Kits) will include new cards designed by Uwe Rosenberg and five highly detailed pre-painted figures for use with the Agricola base game. Each of the six expansions will contain figures for one player, and unique cards in each of the expansions.

“We’re excited to work with Uwe and Lookout Games to bring new content to the Agricola franchise,” said Justin Ziran, president of WizKids. “Lookout Games brings a legacy of quality, style and innovative game play to the table and we couldn’t be happier to enhance Agricola with detailed, pre-painted figural & gameplay content.”

“We’ve been wanting to do painted figures for the family members for a while now and thought it would be great to couple them with new content for the game. We’re excited to be working with WizKids to make this a reality,” said Grzegorz Kobiela, editor at Lookout Games.

Designed for 1-6 players, the revised edition of Agricola features all-wood components, new imagery and an updated card selection. The Agricola Upgrade Kit is great for both veteran players looking for a quality upgrade and new players jumping into the game fresh. Players can expect to find the new Agricola Upgrade Kits at their friendly local game store beginning in 2017.

Each expansion has player pieces for 1 player and unique cards. In order to get all the unique cards, 6 of the expansions must be purchased. Is that correct?

Is this content going to be packaged all together in the "ultimate edition" at a later date, or is this going to be the only way to get this stuff?

If it is anything like Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, yes you will have to purchase the minis to get the cards. I don't want to speak for them about Gric, but I would assume the same. The only way other than that would be something like Ebay.

“We’ve been wanting to do painted figures for the family members for a while now and thought it would be great to couple them with new content for the game."

Yeah, the only thing better than doing that would be to not do that, so that people who only want the cards don't need to buy the minis, and people who do want the minis don't have to buy a bunch of separate expansions to get enough for the whole game.

Each expansion has player pieces for 1 player and unique cards. In order to get all the unique cards, 6 of the expansions must be purchased. Is that correct?

Conversely, if someone wanted to use the new figures for a 5-player game, they have to buy 5 expansions even though they may not like some of the decks of cards? Not that I would prioritize the figures, but who knows, we haven't seen them. It will be interesting to see pricing for this, but I would not hold my breath.

I'm curious where all the negativity is coming from. I feel like I'm missing something here. This doesn't appear to be any different than what they did with the old edition and card expansions.

It feels like a... gimmick. Miniatures, in Agricola? Gimmicky. Spreading those miniatures across five (edit* 6!?) different products, paired with some cards? CCG level of gimmick.

(The following copied from my reddit comment, which seemed to resonate with some people) 5 years after my first play, Agricola is still my favorite game. This Wizkids deal doesn't excite me at all. What I'm excited for is the anniversary edition announced for 2017 release. I hope these Wizkids expansions don't have any affect on my beloved anniversary edition, as it is my most anticipated game of next year!

I'm curious where all the negativity is coming from. I feel like I'm missing something here. This doesn't appear to be any different than what they did with the old edition and card expansions.

The miniatures while appealing to some people sound like they could be quite tacky. The cards that are included are going to be a mix or re-released cards that already exist and a few new cards so you have to buy the whole thing to get access to the new content. Or rather that is how I have read this and why I feel negative towards it.

In contrast to the card expansions they were on the whole were purely new content for the game.

I completely understand why they are doing it. They are trying to make it appealing to the new generation while still trying to entice sales from old fans. I never had a problem with the new edition having reduced player count and cards. The original could be overwhelming and it allowed them to do some nice touches with the boards and pieces. But I can't afford to be sucked into a drip feeding of old and new content.

Have you seen how many people pimp their sets with figures, FIMO clay, or custom meeples?

I know quite a few players that would like an easy way to pimp their sets. These aren't required expansions, they're a fully painted component upgrade with some exclusive cards thrown in.

I don't get the hate, either.

I guess that gets to the meat of the point. If enough people are excited about the miniature, these products will be a success. Here I am, with over 100 Agricola plays, still happily using discs and cubes. What has always excited me was announcements like G-deck, WM-deck, France deck, and, most of all, the 2017 anniversary edition with ~1000 rebalanced cards.

So, that's why I don't care about these miniatures, and won't be buying them. As you point out, there are plenty of people that will. My only concern is that this new product delays or displaces the anniversary edition. I will try emailing lookout to ask about that.

This is definitely on of the more unusual team-ups in boardgamedom. If one of my favorite podcasters had been doing new year predictions and said "Lookout games will team up with WizKids to make booster packs with prepainted miniatures for Agricola", I would have written in to make sure he/she hadn't sustained any recent blows to the head.

If enough people are excited about the miniature, these products will be a success. Here I am, with over 100 Agricola plays, still happily using discs and cubes.

This is the point for me. I resisted the vegimeeples/animeeples for as long as I could (no option with the revised edition). For me, 'Gric is a euro and I'm happy with disks and cubes. I don't hate on this, but it definitely feels gimmicky.

Quote:

...the 2017 anniversary edition with ~1000 rebalanced cards.

Is there any reason to think they're rebalancing the cards and not just reprinting them in a single place?

Some, me included, were unhappy with the direction Mayfair took Agricola. It looked like every decision was about maximizing profit rather than about making solid product. The low card count in the new version makes Agricola nothing like what it was before, it's now, as we are beginning to see, a game system, whereby we are drip fed this sort of stuff in order to keep it fresh and just get our card counts up to a level that used to be standard box game fare.

Others weren't so bothered by the low play count but even so, if they play it as bad as they're playing it right now with this kind of trashy junk then they might end up alienating even another whole layer of fans.

Agricola is still a good game but the 'Agricola Franchise'is a Frankenstein's monster. Out of control.

And not what, in my opinion, gaming should be about. It should be about making great games and selling them and then, later, if there is high demand for new content and new expansions and the designer wants to keep exploring the game then great. But designing a game such that it requires expansions is another matter entirely.

Is there any reason to think they're rebalancing the cards and not just reprinting them in a single place?

I'm having trouble finding the link because I can't access play-agricola.com at work (filter thinks it's a gambling site?!). Somewhere over there, you can find a copy of a letter from Uwe detailing his plans for the 2017 edition. He has enlisted the help of the folks at play-agricola.com, using their "power rankings" list of cards to guide a huge rebalancing effort. I don't think it's been decided how many of the 1,000 cards will be changed or unchanged, but there will definitely be many changes. Hope that helps, and hope someone can link the information I can't find.

I just wish they had picked a better partner. With all the companies in the world making gorgeous minis, WizKids is an awful choice. They could have saved themselves some money and asked Mattel to ship over a crate of plastic army men with straw hats glued on.

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals." Agent K. Oh my what he would think of people had he known about what the internet would become.....

sirgalin wrote:

I just wish they had picked a better partner. With all the companies in the world making gorgeous minis, WizKids is an awful choice. They could have saved themselves some money and asked Mattel to ship over a crate of plastic army men with straw hats glued on.